Pulverulent-fuel-firing system



Feb. 25, 1930.

A. B. HELBIG PULVERULENT FUEL .FIRING SYSTEM -Fi'led Oct. 16, 1925 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Ill" I I I l /n ver for Mmm@ XM@ Feb. 25, 1930. A B, HELBIG I 1,748,173

4 PULVERULENT FUEL FIRING SYSTEM Filed oet. 16, 1925 2 sheets-Shen 2 Patented Feb. 25,v 1930 l f i` l UNITED STATES PATENT QFFICE ALBIN BEBTHOLD HELBIG, F BERLIN, GERMANY PULVERULENT-FUEL-FIRING SYSTEM Application led October 16, 1925. 'Serial No. 62,784, and in Germany J'une.25, 1925.

My invention refers to the production of By introducing the mixture into the chamhigh temperatures by means of finely subber of combustion at a velocity which is a divided and more especially pulverulent fuel. little in excess of the velocity of ignition of It is an object of my invention to provide the mixture I succeed in avoiding ignition means whereby the economy and output of of the mixture in direct Contact with the noz- 55 furnaces heated with finely subdivided fuel zle and I succeed in keeping the base portion is increased as compared with similar furof the flame awayfrom the nozzle. naccs hitherto in use. It is a further object Before entering into a detailed descripof my invention to reduce the initial cost of tion of some of the means adapted for carsuch furnaces .by reducing their dimensions. rying out-my invention, I will describe them 6o These and other objects are attained priin amore general way. p marily by distributing the mixture of iinely Assuming pulverulent coal to be available, subdivided fuel and air in such manner as to this coal is mixed, as usual, with some of the form it into a thin veil extending substanair required for combustion and this mixture 15, tially across the entire width of the chamber is introduced into the combustion chamber of combustion of the furnace, this mixture of the furnace through a tube or other conbeing introduced into this chamber at a veduit. At the point where this conduit opens locity which is only a. little in excess of the into the nozzle opening into the combustion n velocity of ignition of the mixture, no matchamber I prefer arranging the particular i ter how great is the percentage of primary kind of a distributing nozzle. Experience air in the mixture. has shown that cylindrical distributing By the term velocity of ignition is unnozzles do not work satisfactorily inasmuch derstood the velocity at which the-flame travas a cylindricalbody of air and fuel has a c els in the mixture of air and linely distributed particularly small surface and offers the least fuel, for instance pulverulent coal containing possibilities of admixing the secondary air. -a predetermined percentage of fuel having a It has therefore been suggested to extend the predetermined particle size and a predeternozzle so as to form a long narrow slit extendmined contents of volatile matter and traveling substantially in parallel with the side y ing at a predetermined velocity. The time walls of the combustion chamber. Obviousf required for ignition is known to vary in proly the distribution of the fuel in a narrow 8C portion to the percentage of fuel in the mixstream as formed in a nozzle of this kind ture, to the particle size and to the contents must be non-uniform inasmuch as the slit in of volatile matter. such a device is directed at right angles to the By forming the stream of fuel and air into streamlines of the current of air and fuel, a thin veil extending across the entire width whereby the outer parts of the body of air 5 of the combustion chamber, I impart to the and fuel suffer a change of direction whereby mixture the largest possible surface. I therethe central part will be charged with a greatby provide that the secondary air can enter erquantity of fuel than the outer portions.` o the mixture in the shortest possible way by It has been tried to obviate this drawback imparting tothe flowing mixture a low veby providing suitable guide vanes, but the 9 locity, and by providing means for a rapid results have still not been satisfactory. introduction of the secondary air of combus- I succeed in obviating these drawbacks by tion I succeed in reducing the length of the arranging the slit or slits, through which the flame to 8--9 feet, at the same time also remixture of air and fuel escapes from the ducing the time of combustion. By reducing tapering part of the distributing nozzle into the distance required for a complete combusthe shaft, substantially in parallel to the .-r'tion of the fuel contained in the mixture I streamlines of the mixture and by employing further reduce the length of the combustion a conical end piece tapering towards the .40 chamber, whereby the initial costs fof such farther end, the slits being formed in this combustion chambers are materially lowered. conical or tapering portion. The slits are so 10c tional area of the end` piece at any point of its length and of the slits from their origin down to this point is always equal to the largest cross-sectional area of the end piece, as will be explained -more specifically with reference to the drawings.. Owing to this' arrangement'I succeed in causing substantially equal volumes of the mixture of a1r and fuel to escape from the distributing v nozzle all over its length and in consequence thereof the distribution of fuel in the mixture will also be uniform all over the length of the distributing device. I prevent the fuel from separating out in several streams escaping from'thc distributing device by providing guide walls extending at right anglesl to the slits, and I further employ a supply conduit having a far smaller cross-sectional area than the distributing device itself. As is well known, the air carrying the finely subdivided fuel, in order to uniformly convey it in the supply conduit, must travel at a predetermined velocity, which is obtained nowadays with a pressure of 6 to 16 in. of water. If the mixture of air and fuel were i blown into the combustion chamber with the velocity resulting from such pressure, a very long flame would result. By increasing the cross-sectional area of the distributing device as compared with the supply conduit I correspondingly reduce the velocity of the mixture. I further provide bafl'les serving' for effecting a still more intimate mixture of the fuel and air escaping from the distributing device. By thus proceeding I am enabled to greatly increase the percentage of primary air entering the combustion chamber.. However as 10 to 20 per cent of the air required' for combustion are required for conveying 'the fuel at a pressure vof 6 to 16 in., and as on the other hand the secondary air in a system according tothis invention only requires a pressure of f/S to l in. at a maximum, I further reduce the power needed for the introduction of the air by introducing the greater part 'of the primary'air with a low velocity and pressure into the shaft, in which it flows in a large, slowly descending stream vto which the fuel with its amount of conveying air is admixed in lateral direction, suitable bafiies being disposed so'as to intimately mix the two currents.

In order further to protect the inner end of the shaft against the destructive effects of the high temperature in the combustion chamber, I prefer providing means for watercooling the shaft. u

In the drawings affixed to this specificationl and forming part thereof'two modifications of a device embodying my invention and a furnace showing the arrangement of 1 such device are illustrated diagrammatically by way of example.

In'the drawings .'Fig. l is an axial section, and

Fig. 2 is a cross-section on the line II-I in Fig. 1,

Fig, 3 is a cross-section, and

Fig. 4 al1-axial section of a modified form, Fig. 5 is a longitudinal section, and Y Fig. 6 is a cross-section ou the line VI--VI in Fig. 5 of a furnace provided with two distributing nozzles similar to those shown in Figs. l and 2.

Fig. 7-is a horizontal axial section of the distributing nozzle 3 shown in Figs. l and 2.

Referring first to Figs. 1 and 2, 1 is the supply pipe or conduit, through which the mixture of air and fuel is introduced. and 2 is a cylindrical extension connected with the conduit 1. 3 is the conical or tapering distributing nozzle adjoining the cylindrical part 2, and 4, 4 are slits formed in the bottom of the c onical extension 3 and extending substantially in axial direction, which is also the direction of flow of the mixture, down to the farther end of the distrilniting nozzle. 5, 5 are baf'lies extending below and in 'parallel with the slits 4, these baflles in the form shown in the drawings having triangular cross-section. 6, (i. are guide walls or partitions extending vertically downwards from the bottom portion of the device these guide walls being for instance formed of sheet metal and lsubdividing the shaft un'- derneath the slits 4 into a. plurality of conduits extending substantially at right angles to the slits. The part 7 of the shaft through which these walls extend and also the part 8 mounted in the top wall 9 of the combustion chamber have arectangular cross-section of materially greater area than the supply conduit 1, 2. Cooling tubes l0 are disposed below the inner end of the shaft, these tubes in the modification illustrated in the drawings extending in the axial direction of the shaft. I may however also arrange them at right angles thereto. These tubes subdivide the cross-sectional area of the mouth of theshaft into smaller rectangles and prevent ignition of the mixture of air and fuel directly at the mouth `of the shaft, notwithstanding the low entrance velocity of the mixture.

` As already explained above, the tapering portion 3 of the distributing nozzle and the slits 4 are'so arranged and proportioned, that the sum total of the cross-sectional area at any point of tapering part 3 and the crossseetional area of the slits 4 from their origin' down to this point are equal to the cross-seetional .area of the supply conduit. In other words, if the cross-sectional area of the supply conduit is a, the cross-sectional area of the tapering portion 3 halfway between the and lSO

the cross-sectional area of all the slits together from the point c to the point b will be (-2 also.

Fig. l, and 11 is a conduit connecting it with the upper portion 7d of the shaft mounted above the bot-tom portion 8 which is fixed in place in the furnace cover 9a. 5a is a baille mounted in parallel with the outlet of conduit 11, 12 is a grate or sieve made of perforated sheet metal, wire gauze or the like, and 13 is a secondary air conduit, 6, 6' being partitions subdividing the upper part T of the shaft. In this modification the distributing nozzle 3a is supplied with a mixture of primary air vand fuel which is b lowu with high velocity into the slowly descending current of secondary air entering through.the conduit 13, the grate or sieve 12. the free cross-sectional area of which corresponds to tle cross-sectional area ot' the conduit 11. serving for securing a uniform distribution of secondary air all over the shaft.

In the boiler furnace illustrated in Figs. and 6, 3b are two distributing nozzles similar to those shown in Figs. 1 and 2, each extending halfway across the width of the combus tion chamber 15. The brickwork forming the chamber is water-cooled by means of a system ofcooling tubes 16, and 17 is the front wall adjoining the shaft and which is particularly exposed to the heat of the flame. In order to prevent it from being destroyed, I prefer constructing it from perforated bricks such as describecl'in my Patent of the United States No. 1,625,082.

Obviously the mixture of fuel and air escaping from the slits of the distributing nozzle 3b which extend transversely across the furnace will form a thin veil which is easily ignited and easily permeated by the secondary air.

Instead of a single pair of distributing* nozzles 3b I may of course employ a greater number thereof and in the case of a smaller furnace a single distributing nozzle will suffice. l

I wish it to be understood that I ldo not desire to be limited to the exact details of construction shown and described for obvious modifications will occur to a person skilled in the art.

I claim 1..Pulverulent fuel tiring system comprising a tubular air and fuel distributing nozzle extending substantially horizontally, the

diameter of which gradually decreases in the direction of tlow of the air and fuel in said nozzle, the bottom Wall of said nozzle being provided with slots extending in the direction of How of air and fuel therein and ballles extending underneath and in parallel with said slots. v

2. Pulverulent fuel firing system comprising a tubular air and fuel distributiiw nozzle extend'ng substantially horizontally, the diameter of which gradually decreases in the direction of flow of the air and fuel in said nozzle, the bottom wall of said nozzle being provided with slots extending in the direction of flow of air and fuel therein and guide walls below and extending substantially at right angles to said slots.

3. Pulverulent fuel tiring system comprising a tubular air and fuel distributing nozzle extending substantially horizontally` the diameter' of which gradually decreases in the direction of low of the air and fuel in said nozzle, the bottoni wall of said nozzle being provided with slots extending in the direction of flow of air and fuel therein and battles extending underneath and in parallel with said slots, the taper of the nozzle and the total width of said slots being so proportioned that the sum total of the cross-sectional areas of the nozzle at any point of its length and of the slots from their origin down to this point is substantially equal to the largest cross-sectional area of the nozzle.

Intestimony whereof lI aflix my signature.

ALBIN BERTHGI'JD HELBIG. 

